The C Word

I didn’t mention this, but during the wonderful fun of my wedding planning thus far, we got some pretty heavy news about my dad. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer. My parents mean everything to me, so to see him suffer and face a scary situation was horrible. Also, in all honesty my dad is usually my rock and I desperately needed him during the process (as selfish as that may sound).

After the diagnosis he had a few options and ultimately he took hormones and had radiation treatments to fight the cancer. The hormones really made him not feel like himself.

Wrapping my head around the cancer was too much for me. I just couldn’t deal with it so it was almost like when I wasn’t with them, it wasn’t real. I needed him to be up for walking me down the aisle, rockin’ our father/daughter dance, and busting some moves all night on the dance floor!

My mom, on the other hand, was responsible for running the ship at the time and was really good at staying on top of dad to make sure he went to all of his doctor appointments, etc. (My dad also was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease about five or six years ago, so between it all, the two of them had quite a few appointments and a lot on their plate.) More than once I suggested we postpone the wedding until my dad felt better…I mean we didn’t even know what would happen between then and May. Plus, the added emotional/physical strain was definitely not helping the overall vibe or interactions between my mother and I, and it caused delays in coordinating a lot of details.

In December 2017 my father finished his last radiation treatment. The nurses at the hospital threw him a mini celebration and gave him a certificate at the hospital to recognize him, and of course we threw a mini party at home to celebrate! I was really happy for him because I know how exhausted he (and my mother) were and I desperately wanted my dad back to feeling like his happy self again. I knew we still had a long road ahead of us while we waited for results to come back, but we had five months to go until the big day and we still had a lot to do!